League ends with a bang

The seventh edition of Bangladesh Premier League ended yesterday with Muktijoddha Sangsad handing a massive 8-0 defeat to relegated Uttar Baridhara Club at the Bangabandhu National Stadium.

With the last-match win, Muktijoddha Sangsad equalled the professional football league's biggest margin of victory which was set by Sheikh Jamal DC against same opponents earlier this year.

Nigerian striker Sunday Chizoba struck his second hattrick of the league while Ibrahim, Iqbal, Chowmrin and Eleta Benjamin scored one goal apiece to propel Muktijoddha Sangsad to the big-margin win as well as third-place finish in the 10-team table. Muktijoddha ended with 49 points from 27 matches, 15 behind eventual champions Sheikh Jamal and three less than runners-up Abahani.

The seven-month long professional league for the first time featured three phases, with each team facing the others three times with a bid to providing more matches to the teams as per AFC guidelines.

As the teams got more matches, there were as many as 382 goals scored in 135 matches. As expected, the foreign strikers dogged the scoring chart with 227 goals coming from them against 152 goals scored by the locals. There were only three own goals.

Sheikh Jamal's Haitian striker Wedson Anselme topped the scoring chart with 26 goals to his name, but it was refreshing to see local strikers like Mohammedan's Wahed Ahmed (15 goals), Zahid Hasan Emily (9 goals) and Sheikh Russel's Mithun Chowdhury (14 goals) getting into the top ten, which is a remarkable improvement from last season when Anwar Hossain was the top local scorer with only six goals.

Only champions Sheikh Jamal managed to put up consistent performances on the way to their second league title while the other teams failed to keep up the momentum throughout the league. Newcomers Uttar Baridhara had a torrid time in the top-tier as they conceded 85 goals in 27 matches and registered only two wins.